Nicolas Winding Refn returns to Cannes with new film

Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn returned to the Cannes Film Festival 15 years after his breakthrough hit “Drive” with a dark new fable shaped by what he described as the hidden narratives driving modern media consumption. “I love the idea of juxtapositions of narratives,” he told the media, recalling how he loved flicking between TV channels as a child because it allowed him to go between worlds — an experience now echoed with social media’s endless scroll.

“The algorithm essentially creates an internal narrative that you’re unconscious of, because it feeds what your emotions react to,” he said. “All that is becoming very interesting in terms of what is cinema. Because is cinema really just deep down an experience that we just chase?”

“All of that combined is ... what ‘Her Private Hell’ is.” Refn first came to Cannes in 2011 with “Drive,” starring Ryan Gosling as a getaway driver, which won him the best director prize and established his reputation in arthouse cinema.

He followed up with another Gosling-led thriller, “Only God Forgives,” and fashion-world horror “The Neon Demon,” before turning to television. “Her Private Hell,” which premiered out of competition on Monday, marks his return to feature filmmaking. In typical Refn fashion, the highly stylised film opens with Elle, played by Sophie Thatcher, in a neon-lit penthouse above a city shrouded in a mist that brings with it the legend of a killer known as Leather Man.

Havana Rose Liu plays her stepmother, while Kristine Froseth appears as a young actress named Hunter.

In a parallel storyline, an American GI in Tokyo, played by Charles Melton, fights through the city’s seedy underbelly while seeking his daughter, who the killer has taken.

Cast members described a fluid, unconventional shoot, with scenes evolving day by day.

“There was a script, but every day he would come with a dream or an idea, and then we’d follow that,” said Froseth.

Thatcher, who recently headed the horror films “Companion” and “Heretic,” recalled the experience as the most absurd but also artistic and collaborative she has had. “It almost felt like it wasn’t acting; it was like performance art.”

Meanwhile, German filmmaker Volker Schloendorff said the Cannes Film Festival shows how cinema continues to evolve, as he returned to the Croisette with a new film rooted in Germany’s turbulent past nearly 50 years since “The Tin Drum” won the top prize. “The festival proves every time that film still exists, that it continues to evolve, that it is far, far more diverse than what we’re usually offered,” the 87-year-old director told Reuters.

He added that the biggest change is that he does not recognise a single name: “I used to know the directors of all the films in competition. “Over a career spanning more than six decades, Schloendorff has become known for his literary adaptations, including “The Tin Drum,” an adaptation of a Guenter Grass novel that won both Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 1979 and the Academy Award for best foreign-language film.

Other notable works include “The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum,” co-directed with Margarethe von Trotta, as well as international projects such as “Death of a Salesman” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

His latest work, “Visitation,” which premiered out of competition on Saturday, draws on the writing of German author Jenny Erpenbeck and weaves together personal and collective memory rather than offering a conventional historical account. “Although it’s a film about German history, it’s not presented like a history lesson,” he told Reuters. “It consists of memories, especially the author’s own memories,” which give it an impressionistic quality, he said.

Reuters